Has Chechnya officially become a hokey-pokey nation?

CNN reports:

Authorities in the Russian Republic of Chechnya have announced a ban on music that they consider too fast or slow.

Minister of Culture Musa Dadayev announced the decision to limit all musical, vocal and choreographic compositions to a tempo ranging from 80 to 116 beats per minute (BPM) at a meeting Friday, the Russian state new agency TASS reported.

“(I) have announced the final decision, agreed with the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov, that from now on all musical, vocal and choreographic works must correspond to a tempo of 80 to 116 beats per minute,” Dadayev said, according to TASS.

Under Kadyrov’s directive, the region now ensures that Chechen musical and dance creations align with the “Chechen mentality and musical rhythm,” aiming to bring “to the people and to the future of our children the cultural heritage of the Chechen people,” Dadayev added.

A top tempo of 116 BPM is rather slow. Standard march tempo is about 120 BPM, and that feels a bit slow to me. My high school marching band routinely used a higher tempo than that, perhaps as high as 144 BPM.

H/t Tyler Cowen. 

Here's Adam Neeley's commentary: